World champion in 1993 and 1997, four times Olympic champion, and European champion in 1996, Russia is a great handball nation. Witness his 22 participations in 27 editions at the world championships. From this point of view, it is not surprising to see the Russians on the program of these Worlds in Egypt. What questions is that on December 17, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) suspended Russia from all international competitions for two years, while the World Anti-Doping Agency had imposed a four-year sanction. Historically, this sentence does not prevent Russian handball players from landing in Egypt less than a month later.
Participation under conditions
In fact, they were allowed to participate on behalf of the “Russian Handball Federation team”. That is to say under a neutral banner, which will be the case for Russian teams and athletes who have never been sanctioned for doping during the duration of the suspension pronounced by CAS. Concretely, beyond the name, Russia will evolve in these Worlds without its flag, without any distinctive sign on its jerseys and without its anthem. Officially, we will also speak of “neutral” players, and not Russians. “For Russia, where patriotic sentiment is highly developed, it is a form of humiliation. The blow is real, even if symbolic because they can still participate “, explain to us Lukas Aubin, specialist in Russian geopolitics author of a thesis entitled Sportokratura in Russia: governing through sport in the era of Vladimir Putin (2000-2020).
Because in Russia more than elsewhere, sport and national teams have been a political tool for a long time. Lukas Aubin explains: “To put it simply, when Putin came to power, he inherited a ruined sports environment, destroyed by the fall of the USSR. He has decided to make sport a central element of his ‘softpower’, aimed at foreigners and Russians themselves. Sport is a catalyst for patriotic feeling, and it helps to show a positive image of one’s country “. It is in particular with this in mind that Russia organized the Winter Olympics in 2014 in Sochi, or the 2018 World Cup. But it is also for this purpose that institutionalized doping has been put in place, this which leads to this condemnation of the CAS today. The circle is complete.
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If the slap is real, the damage is actually limited for Russia where this announcement was greeted as a relief. “The worst case scenario for them would have been to be excluded and not participate because for 20 years Russia has invested a lot in this generation of athletes. There at least they participate “, relativizes Lukas Aubin. According to him, this symbolic sanction could even be transformed into an asset: “There is going to be a boomerang effect, Russian sportsmen will probably use this ban to show that they are strong, that they exist anyway. They can use it in a positive way. As for the Russian authorities, they take pleasure in it. this position of Russia alone against all, Russia which has never been understood by Westerners. They say: ‘We are not understood, but we do not submit’ “.
Respond from the field
From there to think that Russia comes out the winner of this lost showdown? “All this put end to end, it is almost positive paradoxically. Putin will be able to crystallize the patriotism of the athletes, they will over-motivate themselves by telling themselves that they are going on a mission to defend Russia, even without their colors. But that doesn’t solve the internal doping problem“, recalls Lukas Aubin, who specifies that the new generation of athletes begins to raise its voice against the Russian sports authorities.” MBut they are supervised by leaders high in these generalized doping methods. There is a generational problem, we are in a transition phase“, he adds.
For Carole Gomez, Research Director at IRIS, specializing in the impact of sport in international relations since 2013, it is indeed necessary to qualify: “Some think that being there is a victory for Russia, that it allows us to say ‘we’re still here’. In my opinion, in terms of communication, the fact of not having the flag, no anthem, no distinctive signs, is a heavy burden and it makes the sanction explicitly visible. There is always a communication objective in a sanction. Ostracising a team in this way makes it possible to denounce behaviorIn the end, everyone agrees on one point: only the results will allow innocent Russian athletes to forget the sanction caused by years of political interference in the world of sport. Placed in Group H with South Korea , Slovenia and Belarus, the ‘Neutral Athletes’ have every chance of reaching the main round to be talked about, in handball, and not badly.
to see also
Doping: Russia excluded for two years from world competitions and deprived of the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics
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